“The Prophet said to Bilâl, ‘Bring my two sons Hasan and Husain.’ When they were presented he pressed them to his bosom, smelt and kissed those two flowers of the garden of prophecy. Aly, fearing they would trouble the Prophet, was about to take them away; but be said, ‘Let them be, that I may smell them, and they smell me, and we prepare to meet each other; for after I am gone great calamities will befall them, but may God curse those that cause them to fear and do them injustice. O Lord, I commit them to Thee and to the worthy of the Faithful, namely, Aly-bin-Abutalib.’ The Prophet then dismissed the people and they went away, but Abbâs and his son Fazl, and Aly-bin-Abutalib, and those belonging to the household of the Prophet, remained. Abbâs then said to the Prophet, ‘If the Khalâfat (K͟hilāfah) is established among us, the Benu Hâshim, assure us of it, that we may rejoice; but if you foresee that they will treat us unjustly and deprive us of the Khalâfat, commit us to your Companions.’ Muhammad replied, ‘After I am gone they will weaken and overcome you,’ at which declaration all the family wept, and, moreover, despaired of the Prophet’s life.
“Aly continued to attend Muhammad night and day, never leaving him except from the most imperative necessity. On one of these occasions, when Aly was absent, the Prophet said, ‘Call my friend and brother.’ Auyeshah and Hafsah sent for their fathers, Abubekr and Omar, but he turned from them and covered his face, on which they remarked, ‘He does not want us, he wants Aly,’ whom Fatimah called; and Muhammad pressed him to his bosom, and they mingled their perspiration together, and the Prophet communicated to him a thousand chapters of knowledge, each opening to a thousand more. One tradition declares that Muhammad kept Aly in his bed till his pure spirit left his body, his arm meanwhile embracing Aly.”
[In compiling this account of the life of Muḥammad, we must express our deep obligations to Sir William Muir’s Life of Mahomet (1st ed., 4 vols.; 2nd ed., 1 vol.; Smith, Elder and Co., London). In many cases we have given the ipsissima verba of his narrative, with his kind permission. The chief literature on the subject, in addition to Sir William Muir’s work, is: Das Leben und die Lehre des Moḥammad, A. Sprenger, Berlin, 1869; Specimen Historiæ Arabum, E. Pocock, Oxon. 1650; Ismael Abulfeda De Vita et Rebus gestis Mohamedis, J. Gagnier, Oxon. 1723; Life of Mahomet, Washington Irving, London, 1850; Life of Mahomed from Original Sources, A. Sprenger, Allahabad, 1851; Essays on the Life of Muhammad, Syud Ahmad Khan, C.S.I., London; A Critical Examination of the Life and Teachings of Muhammad, Syud Ameer Ali Moulla, LL.D., London, 1873; Islam and its Founder, S.P.C.K., 1878; Mahomet et le Coran, T. Barthelemy de St. Hilaire, 1865; The True Nature of the Imposture Fully Explained, H. Prideaux, London, 1718; the first three volumes of the modern part of An Universal History, London, 1770 (specially recommended by Dr. Badger); Tareek-i-Tabari, Zotenberg; Das Leben Mohammeds nach Ibn Ishāk, bearbeitet von Ibn Hischam, G. Weil, 2 vols., 1864. The earliest biographers whose works are extant in Arabic, are Ibn Isḥāq (A.H. 151), Ibn Hishām (A.H. 218), al-Wāqidī (A.H. 207), at̤-T̤abarī (A.H. 310).]
Muḥammad is referred to by name in four places in the Qurʾān:—
[Sūrah iii. 138]: “Muḥammad is but an apostle: apostles have passed away before his time; what if he die, or is killed, will ye retreat upon your heels?”
[Sūrah xxxiii. 40]: “Muḥammad is not the father of any of your men, but the Apostle of God, and the Seal of the Prophets.”
[Sūrah xlvii. 2]: “Those who believe and do right and believe in what is revealed to Muḥammad,—and it is the truth from their Lord,—He will cover for them their offences and set right their mind.”
[Sūrah xlviii. 29]: “Muḥammad is the Apostle of God.”
He is said to have been foretold by Jesus under the name of Aḥmad. [Sūrah lxi. 6]: “Giving you glad tidings of an Apostle who shall come after me whose name shall be Aḥmad.” [[AHMAD].]
According to a tradition of Ibn ʿAbbās, the Prophet said: “My name in the Qurʾān is Muḥammad, and in the Injīl Aḥmad, and in the Taurāt Aḥyad (from the root حيد, “to shun”), and I am called Aḥyad because I shun hell-fire more than any of my people.” (An-Nawawī, Wüstenfeld’s edition, p. 28.)